The woodland home of two wolves won the royal seal of approval yesterday as Princess Anne opened their new enclosure at the Highland Wildlife Park.
The Princess Royal visited the attraction near Kincraig during a day of engagements throughout the Highlands.
The new £300,000 enclosure, which was built by the Royal Engineers, covers 21,500sqft and includes a viewing platform. It is now hoped that the wolves – a female called Elara and five-year-old male called Puika – will breed and rear cubs.
The princess, who is patron of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, also toured the park, which is home to the UK’s only polar bear, as well as Amur tigers and snow monkeys.
Being a horse-lover, Princess Anne was also shown the park’s eight wild Przewalski’s horses.
Her second Highland visit saw her travelling to Knapdale, Mid-Argyll, to see another of the society’s project – the Scottish Beaver Trial. Her visit came just weeks after it was revealed that two of the beaver families had bred, producing two kits.
Accompanied by Iain Valentine, the society’s director of animals, conservation and education, Princess Anne took a boat trip to see a beaver lodge belonging to one of the breeding families on the loch edge.
The first release of beavers at Knapdale took place in May 2009, with further releases in May and June this year.
The princess’s final visit took her to Eigg, where she was piped on to the island to a specially-composed tune.
Entitled the Isle of Eigg’s Welcome to the Princess Royal, it was written and played by Donna MacCulloch, an accomplished piper who has lived on the island for a number of years.
Princess Anne also received a posy from Breagha Millar and a CD by Clyde Wallace, both five-year-old pupils at Eigg Primary School, which has a roll of 10.
The island has become famed for being environmentally friendly and the princess heard about a project to harness renewable energy from the chairman of the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust, John Hutchison.
He said: “Eigg has become a place to be watched, to be associated with, a place to visit and a place to learn from. Although that is humbling we are also very proud of our achievements.”
In her response, the Princess Royal congratulated the community and said that the dynamics on the island had made it successful and an example to others.
During their brief tour of the island, the royal party learned about the challenges of the past few years, including the community buyout, the changes brought about through sustainable energy, and its success in winning more than £320,000 for substantially reducing its carbon footprint through wind, water and solar power.